Have you been a victim of an internet scam? You are not alone! Learn about the most frequent online scams and stop others from taking advantage of you or your family and friends.

Online dating scams

Many get scammed while in pursuit of a special connection with someone.

The typical story starts with a person communicating with a person online, and that platonic relationship tends to get on for years. But only when they have developed deep feelings for the particular individual (and have communication ongoing for quite some time) do they realize that that person is misrepresenting their identity and has ulterior motives. 

Sounds like another episode of Catfish, just with actors on a different platform – Facebook.

We don’t say that this is terrible, and we aren’t anti-socializing with strangers in the virtual world. However, looking for love online can affect your current and future relationships with people you can physically touch and do activities together. It would be best if you considered the pros and cons of a long-distance relationship, especially with someone you have never met.

Here, we address scammers who want your money or sensitive information to blackmail you later (for cash).

Some people prey on their victims on dating sites. They make up a fake profile, use someone else’s photos, and engage with other app members. 

When you’re on Bumble and chat with different individuals who you find attractive based on personal preferences, you should keep in mind to keep your guard up. If you don’t, you risk being the next victim of dating scams.

We do not claim that this particular app has scammer users. Any dating and chat app can serve someone with ulterior motives as a means to a goal.

How to protect yourself from becoming a victim of an online dating scam?

Suppose you start a platonic relationship with someone and never meet that individual face to face without screens, but the communication intensifies. What should you watch out for?

When forming a new acquaintance with the potential to evolve into something more profound, you should be on the alert and seek a warning sign. Something “smells fishy” if:

*They never seem to have time or a way to video chat with you, i.e., you cannot see their face clearly;

*Talk about money issues frequently, in a way that you feel guilty for having money and/or not sharing with them;

*Ask you for money because they need it urgently for whatever reason.

So exercise caution and remember: scammers do not care about other people’s feelings. They’re looking after their personal benefit alone.

Vishing, phishing, and smishing online scams

These three forms of web forgery are created to steal your identity, with the ultimate goal of attaining financial gain.

What is vishing?

Vishing happens when a fraudster obtains the victim’s personal details by phone.

That fraudster (or fraudsters, if numerous fraudsters are involved) then uses the obtained personal information to commit fraud, hence the labeling “fraud” and “fraudster.”

Phone or voice-based cons are called vishing. It is a variant, one of the criminal activity methods that include stealing personal information from individuals.

An example of a vishing attack circulating the net and mentioned frequently falls into computer performance scams.

How it goes? Someone calls you on the phone and presents themself as technical support. They go then and claim that there is an issue going on with your computer. They will tell you that you have a virus on your machine and advise you (persuade you) to download a “completely safe” file. In reality, that file contains a virus.

Since they represent an authority figure, trusted source, people often do as they are told.

What is phishing?

For the majority, the riskiest scam you can fall for is phishing.

Realize that if someone obtains access to your email address, they can use that email to unlock all the other doors. They have the key. 

Everything you have associated with your email address: an account with a cell phone provider, bank, social platforms, and so on. Stop for a second or a couple and think about all the websites you used your email address to register? Quite a few, probably.

That is why it is essential to be suspicious of emails where you don’t recognize the sender or remember that you have subscribed to receiving emails from them at all. For emails that go straight to spam, in most cases, they are unwanted and are to be moved to the trash without opening. Lastly, you should be suspicious of trusted, well-known companies, organizations, and parties.

Phishing attacks have a mass-sending character.

Emails that pretend to be from a company, some organization, or even a government agency aim toward our virtual inboxes. The content contains an ask to perform a specific action: to click on a link, give personal details, download a particular file.

We do not imply that your bank company will try to trick you, no, but someone can mask the sender’s address, make it look genuine, and the attached URL, all with the goal to trick you, the victim, into clicking on the link and executing malware somewhere.

The art of spoofing

Spoofing is the act of altering an email address or a sender’s name to convince a recipient that they are communicating with a trusted source. 

It usually happens by changing a letter, symbol, or number, just a minor detail, but sufficient to deceive a careless individual.

Spoofing also involves changing a website URL or a phone number to a fake assumed source.

Do a check of the phone you are provided to contact.

Search for the company’s number on your own to verify if the number of the sender matches with the official number of the company in question. Go a step further and call that business to ask if the request is legitimate. 

How to stop phishing emails?

There is not much you can do to stop phishing emails but your own reaction. The lurkers are going to lurk; the scammers are going to try to scam you. What you can do is react and not let them fulfill their goals.

Now that you know the most common ways someone may use to con you, apply it in every next fishy email/phone/text situation.

Look for the following signs:

• using a generic salute without using your name because they most likely don’t possess that information;

• the company/person sending the email expresses concern about some suspicious activity or log-in attempts and asks you to take steps such as to change password or username;

• there is a claim there’s a problem with your account or your payment information;

• the email includes an invoice; try to verify the authenticity of that invoice;

• the content has spelling errors or usage of numbers to replace letters (example: “11” for “ll” ), so you should be scanning emails and text messages for grammar errors.

What they want you to provide:

• Credit or debit card details
• Driving license numbers
• Bank account numbers
• Passwords and usernames
• Postal address

But it can be something more generic in terms of not revolving around your personal details (at first glance) related to a specific account (of streaming service, pay platform, etc.), such as:

• claims that you’re eligible to register for a government refund;
• receiving a coupon for free stuff.

Which also leads you to give your personal details.

Many companies fight against this and warn their customers about potential attempts of fraud.

Here’s an example of how PayPal notifies its customers about potential fraudulent emails:

What is Smishing – SMS phishing or text phishing?

Smishing is a phone-based con happening when scammers obtain personal details by SMS text messages.

It is any type of scam that involves a text message.

Internet merchandise online scams

This one might have happened to every or every other person who ordered a physical product online.

The number of complaints about shopping fraud increases as you read this post. And they go both ways. Shoppers are complaining about sellers, and sellers are complaining about customers. We write about scams from a customer’s perspective in this article.

Shopping scam involves receiving defective goods, receiving products that are not what they were claimed to be, or missing the product, i.e., the product was never delivered.

Some shops and sellers are out there to fraud their potential customers.

The online seller has put images and descriptions of their products. Still, when the product arrives, reality crushes your expectations, as the actual product falls way short of the original description.

If the product was never delivered, they might’ve been the justification for that. Someone lost it in transition. But to blame a middleman, a transport service, or anyone who participated in the delivery, you have to have proof from the seller that they sent the merchandise.

If the seller cannot provide proof or disappear without explanation, this is your cue, but a little too late.

Platforms such as Aliexpress offer a “Dispute option.” They may refund you the whole amount or the partial amount, depending on, well, we suppose it’s depending on who’s been delegated the case.

The advice we can offer is always checking the platforms and website’s terms and conditions to know what to expect if you face something mentioned above.

Now that you learned how scams work and what dangers lurk online, you are in a better position than most folks. There are many more scams that take place on the internet, far more than what we discussed in this post, but you have the foundational knowledge about what to do to avoid being the fraudsters’ next victim.